Reviews// Randal's Monday

Fifteen year old me would have adored Randal's Monday from beginning to end, sadly I haven't been that boy for quite some time and so after eight hours of this game I finally had to admit to myself that I just wasn't having fun.

The opening episodes remain amusing. You can read my initial impressions HERE and generally prepare you for some of the craziness to come. After those first few hours things started to go awry for me.

The characters started the grate on my nerves. Obnoxious characters can only be amusing for so long and most of these outstayed their welcome to the point where I cringed at some of things being said.

The art remains bland throughout. It gets the job done but doesn't stand up to closer inspection. In my play sessions I encountered numerous bugs, several of which have forced me to postpone this review because they stopped my progress dead - missing character art, interactive items that refused to be interacted with. There is always the chance that these bugs are isolated to my unique experience, but they negatively impacted my impressions.

Puzzles become more and more obscure, to the point you spend a significant amount of time trying to combine a new item with every other item in your inventory. There should always be a bit of logic to combining items or how to use them to solve puzzles, but sadly the game tends to throw this idea out of the window and can leave you moving from one area to another, pixel-hunting for something you missed.

One thing that I mentioned in my preview was the abundance of pop culture and primarily nerd culture references to videogames, films and TV shows. Nothing has changed in the final version, they are still everywhere and it can be a fun meta game spotting the really obscure ones.

However, there is such a thing as trying too hard and Randal's Monday does that to a stunning degree with its references. There are simply too many of them and it smells slightly like desperation. At times I felt like the game was waving its arms shouting 'Look at me, I'm cool because I like these [insert beloved franchises here]! Surely one of them will make you like me... Right guys?'

Sorry Randal's Monday, that won't fly with me.

I stuck with the game to see out as much of the story as I could stomach, because despite the grating characters, bland art and cringe worthy script, I found myself wanting to see if Randal would eventually learn his lesson about being a massive jerk... He doesn't, or at least hadn't when I finally gave up.

What is the story all about? It can be summed up as: a thieving scumbag acquires his best friend's engagement ring and then pawns it to make rent, the ring is cursed and said scumbag is forced to relive Monday until he gets it right. Random bad things happen because Randal cannot stop being a kleptomaniac scumbag. That is all you need to know going in.

My initial impressions of the game had been quite positive, but prolonged exposure lessened my overall opinion. It isn't the worst point n' click game I've ever played, but it certainly isn't anywhere near the top half. If you want something with an irreverent sense of humour and haven't already played them, go and get the Deponia games.

Pros:
+ Decent voice acting
+ An OK story

Cons:
- Grating, unlikeable characters.
- Obscure puzzles
- Bland artwork
- Potentially game-breaking bugs (even after a number of patches)

SPOnG score: 4/10